Cobblers sign Aberdeen centre-back

Jeremy Casey

The Cobblers have added a second central central defender to their squad with the signing of Aberdeen’s Ashton Taylor.

The 26-year-old has put pen to paper on a three-year contract at Sixfields, and is set to make his first Town appearance in Saturday’s opening pre-season friendly at Sileby Rangers (ko 3pm).

The 6ft 5in defender becomes the club’s second centre-back signing of the summer, following on from Leon Barnett, and the eighth in all as manager Justin Edinburgh rebuilds his squad.

Taylor, who will travel with his new team-mates to Spain for their pre-season training camp in Spain this Sunday, has spent the past three seasons playing in Scotland with Aberdeen.

He was a key member of a Dons team that established itself as the second best in the country behind Celtic.

Indeed, last season Taylor played in the both the League Cup and Scottish Cup final defeats to the Hoops, with Aberdeen also finishing second in the Scottish Premiership.

He played 43 times last term, and in all he made 119 starts for the Dons as well as six substitute appearances, scoring 10 goals, having joined the ‘Granite City’ club from Tranmere Rovers in the summer of 2014.

His final appearance for Aberdeen came in their heart-breaking 2-1 last-minute Scottish Cup defeat to Brendan Rodgers’ men, in front of more than 50,000 supporters.

Wirral-born Taylor began his career at his home club, working his way through the youth ranks at Prenton Park before making his first team debut at the age of 18.

He went on to make 191 starts and 13 substitute appearances for Tranmere at league one level over a five-year period, netting on 11 occasions, and was a team-mate of current Cobblers left-back Dave Buchanan.

In all, he has made 310 senior starts as well as 19 substitute appearances, scoring 21 goals.